-29-
Hamada has a way of thinking with his hands. He examines a group of bisqued pots, picking up one after another, and seems to sketch in his ideas over their surfaces before he begins to work. Although his fingers hardly touch the bisque end, of course, leave no marks, he later seems to remember exactly what he had planned to do with each pot and proceeds without hesitation.l
Here is Hamada on his decoration techniques: 2
"Texture: There are a number of techniques which I like to use for surface treatment. The raw body can be combed, incised or impressed with a stamp made of biscuit-fired clay. Sometimes clay is applied to the pot to make a design in relief or a ridge can be created on the wheel.
"One method we use often in our workshop is to beat the clay with textured wood paddles. This technique was first used in making very large coiled pots in order to strengthen the joints between coils. Al- though the texture thus impressed on the clay is usually smoothed over, we leave the impressions on our pots to produce an embossed surface which holds the glaze well in its depression.
"Slip: When we wish to make the clay body appear white, water is added to white clay until it is the consistency of thick cream. The pot is then dipped in the white slip which can be incised or decorated with brushwork. Sometimes the side of a round pot is lightly dipped in white slip to form a round patch over which brushwork can be added for a "window picture~" Slip can also be poured or trailed or splashed.
1. Letter f~om Miss Toni Saito who attended Hamada•s workshop at San Jose State College, California.
2. Shoji Hamada, edited by Soetsu Yanagi.
"In Korea, the hakeme or brushed slip technique was used a great deal. Because hakeme was used simply to make the pot white, its appli•
cation was crude and free. In Japan, however, hakeme was adopted as something special and desirable, and in becoming purely decorative, it lost its artlessness and became labored. Although I am very fondr of
~he technique, I find it difficult to use successfully. l
"Slip need not always be white. Copper oxide added to slip which is applied under an ash glaze produces a fine, strong green. Yellow ochre slip can also be used to darken the body and sometimes, white and yellow ochre slip can be trailed or combined, as in English combed slip•
ware. Another ~thod is to apply chatter marks with a thin shaving tool on slip that hasn't become too dry.
"Inlay: Still another method we use to decorate our pottery is inlay. Using clay which contains much iron oxide or yellow ochre, the greenware is incised, stamped or patterned with chatter marks or cord
impressions. Over this, white clay, or white clay and iron slip, is applied, allowed to dry slightly, and then scraped. The blurring of the original pattern by the additional clay and the scraping is a distinctive characteristic of inlay.
"Wax Resist: When using this technique, I melt paraffin, then add an equal amount of coal oil. When the pot is painted with wax, the waxed area is kept free of pigment or glaze. Thus, the design is re•
vealed when the wax melts in the firing. Sometimes I use the wax
1. Hamada uses a hand-made brush of rice stalks for hakeme.
directly on the biscuited body. At other times, I apply a wax brush design after a first coat of glaze, before it is dipped in a second glaze or before a final iron brushing. Iron brush work over a glaze can also be covered with wax before the pot is brushed with iron (i.e.
given an overall brushing with iron-G.W.). Sometimes a glaze trail pattern over a primary glaze can be waxed before it is dipped in a second glaze. Still another method is to paint with wax on greenware and dip it
in yellow ochre pigment before the biscuit firing. Then iron brushwork and a second glaze are added before the final firing.
"Pigment: Although many pigments are available, most of my work is done with iron. Iron rust (for red) is satisfactory, but I prefer to use ground iron or magnetic iron. 1 Sparks from a smithy are the easiest source. To obtain black or brownover standard Mashiko glaze, I use iron with slip for black, and equal parts of black glaze and clear standard glaze for brown. In the many years I have been making pottery, I have not required any more than the above for my pigments. 2
"Brushwork: Because of the thickness of pigment combined with slip, it is necessary to use a brush with long,stiff bristles in decor- ating a pot. Following an old Mashiko practice, I make my own brushes from the long coarse hair at the back of a dog's neck. I remove the
1. Magnetic iron can be obtained in this country. For example, it appears in the list of materials sold by the Ceramic Color and Chemical Co. of New Brighton, Pennsylvania.
2. Bernard Leach, A Potter's Book, page 128, says "This fact (the use of natural or partially prepared oxides in the East) accounts for greater irregularity and, at the same time, a charm of broken color and texture which is foreign to an industrialized technique.
-32-
fine shorter hair, bind the remaining hair with thread, insert it in a piece of split bamboo, and bind it again. With this brush, I can use pigment of any consistency and it will flow well. In addition, it is an extremely durable brush, and I have been able to use one for as long as ten yearso"
For more than thirty years, Hamada has relied heavily on two basic decorative designs for his pots-sugar cane and bamboo-both of which are familiar Japanese motifs. In this kind of repetition, Hamada places himself in the folk craft tradition.
On such traditional decoration, Bernard Leach makes these
observations: "Constant repetition of the same pattern over long periods of time results in the gradual loss of representational elements and the substitution of increasingly abstract rhythms which are often more beau- tiful and more suitable to their purpose. Two years ago, when staying with Mr. Hamada, I had a unique opportunity of observing this change in actual process. In the small potter's town of Mashiko there lives an old woman named Minagawa who is the last traditional pottery painter in that part of Japan. Wholly uneducated and quite illiterate, she has some thirty patterns at her connnand, which she paints on teapots with dog's hair brushes of her own making with an incredible speed and light dryness of touch. In a single day, she is capable of decorating a thousand pots~
Her knowledge of the original subject matter of the patterns she used was 1i Lt-ed to their traditional names, such as "best landscape" or
"second-best bamboo and peony." What she did know was, from what sort of dog and from what part of the dog to clip the hair for the brushes,
what the consistency of her pigments should be, and how to hold the tea- pots so that the flow of strokes should be as rhythmic and rapid as pos- sible."1
Ramada's very condensed description of his glazes, glaze applica- tion and decorative techniques may at first fail to drive home the im- portant point that he almost always applies two or more glazes to a pot.
This fact was first driven home to me by a Leach description of a Hamada teabowl pictured in his book, A Potter's Portfolio: "This pot appears to have been dipped first into a clear glaze showing the gray granulation of the clay beneath, then, foot first, into a dark tenmoku which has then been quickly wiped partly away diagonally by two fingers, making a fin- ger pattern; then the pot has been reversed and the lip dipped into an opaque white rice straw ash glaze and the excess tenmoku wiped off the foot with a wet straw pad.,~2
Elsewhere Leach describes three stoneware tea bowls by Hamada as follows: (1) Wax resist pattern over clear glaze but under a Kaki dip;
(2) Ochre slip, clear glaze,magnetic iron brushing and a last coat of clear glaze; (3) Clear glaze, wax resist, magnetic iron brushing and a final coat of clear glaze. 3
One Hamada technique occasionally borrowed by Leach consists of painting a pattern on raw celadon glaze with wax resist and then basting
1. A Potter's Book, Bernard Leach, page 103-105. 2. A Potter's Portfolio, Bernard Leach, page 27.
3. A Potter's Book, Bernard Leach, page 127.
Art Departmen
the whole surface with a broad flat brush loaded with a thin wash of magnetic iron. The pilPent in turn ls covered with a further brushing of celadon, so that it lies between two layers of glaze.